History and Memory Essay

To what extent has textual form wrought your accord of report and storeho engage? In your response, make compass pointed reference work to your prescribed text and at least whizother link up text. The textual form of the song of Denise Levertov and the recount Pure Torture by Tom Moe has shaped the commentators understanding of fib and shop to a great extent. magic spell tale is represented generally as objective, impersonal, factual and static, retrospection is represented as subjective, personal, fragmented and fluid. Techniques applied by the composers are consistent with forging these representations.A c get examination of the texts indicates that storey and entrepot are unequivocal concepts, yet they are also ii elements which work together in an interdependent relationship to make a participate of truth. A close study of A Letter to Marek virtually a Photograph shows how history and memory are some(prenominal) distinct entities, but that they work togeth er to create a more(prenominal)(prenominal) bonk representation of the truth. The poem provides a representation of the houses history as static and objective finished the adjectives used to describe the personal create wooden angles and fretted gables.However, the composers memory of the context of the home plate provides a place filled with anxiety and worry through the use of the pun in fretted gables, and the metaphor ornaments glowering on the lathe of supposition and trust. While the physiological photograph disgraces in a cumulation of adjectives the carpentered, un painfulnessted, agedness house in some w defecatee ghetto, Levertovs memory records the stirred up context of the inhabitants of the house in the personification of the building the brooding sheath of anxiety and waking and sleeping.Thus, ones understanding of history and memory as 2 distinct besides interdependent elements in recording the truth has been shaped to a great degree through a close reading of A Letter to Marek about a Photograph. Similarly, in A Time Past Levertov conveys the idea of history and memory being distinct but interrelated elements in recording the past. While Levertov records the wooden steps to the front door where I was sitting that break of the day as an historic fact, she intertwines the memory with the physical history of the steps.Human get wind is deeply involved in the history of these steps through the senses in the tactile, aural and visual imagery. She can feel their splinters, the quiet mortified by no bird, no cricket, and gold leaves spinning in silence. The human experience of emotion joy and love and cheerful, resolutionous are captured in the record of the past. Although the memories are fragmentary in nature, care the splinters, they ironically execute the history. This fragmentary quality is captured in the various anecdotes involving the mate and her little son who died, of marriage, of my son, and sitting alone or w ith my save.Although some memories may be blurred or faded over time or was it the second son who lives and thrives? The memories themselves do not lose their importance. While the steps play a significant place in terms of outcomes in Levertovs history, it is the memories involved with the steps which complete the record of truth, thus further enhancing ones understanding of the relationship surrounded by history and memory. In Thai Binh (Peace) Province refers to Levertovs film of the Vietnam War, both a physical and mental record of a past event.textual form is very important in conveying the difference amongst history and memory, thus shaping the readers understanding of the two concepts. The historical documentation includes the repetition of the plosives bombed. The cumulation nouns for buildings hospitals schools silk-factory help to convey the utter loneliness of the country. This is contrasted by Levertovs mental retreat to selectively photograph at bottom her dark sails of the river boats, fightm slant of afternoon light with the use of adjectives such(prenominal) as perched, relaxed to show her retreat towards peace within the long war.Levertov uses juxtaposition of the child with its feet blown off to the boy relaxed on a quietly grazing buffalo effectively to provide a more thorough, comprehensive and complete record of the historical event, rather than a colorful view of the history. She alludes to the history with the humanistic nature of her memory to make it more comprehensive. Thus, it is clear that the textual form of Levertovs poem greatly enhances ones understanding of history and memory being two distinct, yet interrelated, elements.The textual form of Tom Moes Pure Torture shows a clear distinction between history and memory, tour it presents the notion that history and memory are interconnected to produce a more complete representation of the truth of past events. The jump-person recount presented in chronological si ght is consistent with a recording of an historic event. Moe presents the facts of his five-year incarceration as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. As a documented memory, it presents a history, but with the added dimension of his personal perspective that only memory can provide.Moe exposit the horrific nature of the event, thus personalising it through the use of written detail and emotion giving a more blameless representation of the truth. The memory has been enter and published about 23 years after the events occurred. The graphic details of Tom Moes physical harm have been interpret in Pure Torture. He describes their skin which became waterlogged, looking comparable sick of(p) cheese, a crumbling coat of slimy flesh. The use of simile and metaphor emphasise the physical effects of the treatment, personalising and individualising the experience.The memory of how his body deteriorated similarly highlights the unusual human experience you could stick your finger into me up to your knuckle and institutionalize it out leaving a hole that would slowly fill with fluid, and I was shocked at how my body looked like a bag of yellowed bones. The composers intention is clear he intends to shock and fill the readers mind with his memory, and he is very successful in building images so that the record of history is far more accurate and comprehensive.A close examination of the documentary film Dear America earn from Vietnam stands as evidence that the textual form of media recording history and memory are intertwined in such a way that they pass by a complete record of the truth of an event. The historical record of actual footage of a soldier who has lost his foot, graphically details the mans pain when he is in the field Ive been hit (screams) Ive been hit Later, while he is being attended to by doctors, he describes the physical pain, Its that sharp nerve pain urning burning I contend theres not oftentimes left. I thought the social unit thing was going to come off. The witness to the event states Ive never seen such bravery and guts before You should have seen my brave men. It would give you goose pimples. This contrasts significantly with the footage the focus on physical pain is turned in to a focus on mental and emotional qualities. The letter writer is selective in what he wants remembered his focus is on the courage and bravery of the soldier, rather than the pain associated with it.It appears that the trauma is too close to be passed on to members of his family, and he is selective in what he records as his memory and what he contributes to their memory of the war. The footage of the night patrols is frightening, with bombardment in a montage of explosions, gunfire and fires in the jungle. The aftermath of a night patrol is recorded by a soldier who is called in to direct a body. He writes to his family Its going to be hard for me to write this, but by chance it will make me feel better there on t he circuit board was a boy is eyes were open. I couldnt really identify him. They told me his name Rankin. I cried. God, it cant be. But after looking at his face again it was him. It hit me like a shot. This was the first body I ever saw it was too much. I went out of doors and cried. It started raining at noon today it rained so hard. The letter writer has used his memory in a therapeutic way, much like Tom Moe did in Pure Torture and Levertov has done in much of her poetry. The metaphoric tears from heaven helps describe the emotional impact this event has had on the soldier.This letter shows how the event moves from historic footage of a physical event to an emotional human response in the aftermath of the event. Thus, it is clear that while the historic recording of an event may communicate the actual detail of the event, the human response to the event is vital in giving a comprehensive account of that event. It is clear from the close examination of Levertovs poetry an d Pure Torture and Dear America that the responders understanding of history and memory is influenced to a great extent by the textual form of the text.The representations of the objectivity and the impersonal, factual and static nature of historical record is complemented by the representations of the subjectivity and the personal, fragmented and fluid nature of memory. Techniques applied by the composers to create textual form are consistent with forging these representations. narration and memory are distinct concepts, but they operate together in an interdependent relationship to make a more comprehensive and accurate record of truth of past events.